Revision and Preservation in the Redaction of the Pentateuch: A Case Study of Genesis 34

The dissertation pursues a better understanding of the interplay of scribal revision and preservation in the transmission of the texts of the Pentateuch. In critical methodology, there is a prevailing axiom that historical setting determines literary content. However, this dissertation shows that in addition to scribal revision, the critical axiom needs to take scribal preservation into account. The dissertation surveys standard and recent discussions especially pertinent to Pentateuch formation and scribal preservation. This survey demonstrates that in addition to scribal revision, scribal preservation must be factored or the critical axiom would lead one to believe that the contents of the Pentateuch would entirely reflect other late compositions. Yet, in the case of Genesis 34, in narrating Levi and Simeon's revenge of the rape of Dinah, the Pentateuch sharply differs from late compositions that explain the same incident. Genesis 34, therefore, provides a valuable case study through which to consider the role of both scribal revision and scribal preservation in the formation of the Pentateuch. The dissertation compares the exegesis of Genesis 34 with exegeses of corresponding biblical and Second Temple literature. This comparison demonstrates how the contents of Genesis 34 evolved in time. The change in the handling of the plotline of Genesis 34 is due to its progressive disagreement with cultural tastes. Yet due to scribal preservation, at least the kernel contents of Genesis 34 are relics from antiquity, transmitted despite their clash with the different expectations of succeeding generations. Having demonstrated scribal preservation in the case of Genesis 34, current discussions of the composition of the Pentateuch can be reevaluated: Scribal preservation is a transmission dynamic that not only must be factored in these discussions, it is the very component begged by these discussions. Thus, although the critical axiom that historical context determines literary content remains an important consideration, this dissertation shows that the application of this axiom must be carefully nuanced.